[Regnum] In the Zaporizhia region, they demanded to recognize the crimes committed by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices in the region during the Great Patriotic War as genocide of the Soviet people. This was reported on March 20 by the press service of the regional department.
It is noted that the prosecutor's office established the fact of mass torture and brutal murders during the German occupation of the region from October 1941 to October 1943.
"In the city of Melitopol alone, the Nazis brutally dealt with more than 1,800 innocent families in one day. The fascists were especially brutal in their treatment of Soviet prisoners of war. The Red Army soldiers were not given food or drink, those who fell from fatigue and exhaustion were shot, other prisoners had their ears cut off, their eyes gouged out, their hands chopped off, and ultimately they were killed," the article says.
According to the department, over 67,000 civilians and 11,000 prisoners of war were killed in the Zaporizhia region, and over 157,000 people were sent to hard labor. In addition, the amount of damage from the devastation and destruction of collective farms, factories, plants, schools, hospitals, cultural institutions and monasteries by the German military exceeded 25.6 trillion rubles.
The prosecutor's office also submitted a significant body of evidence to the court for consideration, in particular archival documents, expert opinions and materials from the criminal case.
As previously reported by the Regnum news agency, similar lawsuits were previously filed by prosecutors in a number of other Russian regions. In particular, on February 27, the actions of the Nazis near Novgorod during the Great Patriotic War also demanded to be recognized as genocide. The regional prosecutor's office noted that at that time, punitive battalions formed by the invaders were operating on Novgorod lands, which massively destroyed civilians and prisoners of war ; during the occupation, more than 202 thousand people died, and another 166 thousand were driven into slavery.
Moreover, the Nazis razed to the ground the cities of Malaya Vishera, Novgorod, Soltsy, Staraya Russa and Chudovo, and destroyed many cultural monuments. The total amount of damage was about 48 trillion rubles.